Trust is important in many kinds of interactions, including direct or computer- mediated human interaction, human-computer interaction and among social agents; it characterizes those elements that are essential in social reliability. It also informs the selection of partners for successful multiagent coordination (for example, in robotics applications). Trust is more than communication that is robust against repudiation or interference. The reliability of information about the status of a trade partner, for example, is only partly dependent on secure communication.

With the growing prevalance of social interaction through electronic means, trust, reputation, privacy and identity become more and more important. Trust is not just a simple, monolithic concept; it is multi-faceted, operating at many levels of interaction, and playing many roles. Another growing trend is the use of reputation mechanisms, and in particular the interesting link between trust and reputation. Many computational and theoretical models and approaches to reputation have been developed in recent years (for ecommerce, social networks, blogs, etc.). Further, identity and associated trustworthiness must be ascertained for reliable interactions and transactions. Trust is foundational for the notion of agency and for its defining relation of acting “on behalf of”. It is also critical for modeling and supporting groups and teams, for both organization and coordination, with the related trade-off between individual utility and collective interest. The electronic medium seems to weaken the usual bonds of social control and the disposition to cheat grows stronger: this is yet another context where trust modeling is critical.

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers (ideally from different disciplines) who can contribute to a better understanding of trust and reputation in agent societies. We welcome submissions of high-quality research addressing issues that are clearly relevant to trust, deception, privacy, reputation, security and control in agent-based systems, from theoretical, applied and interdisciplinary perspectives. Submitted contributions should be original and not submitted elsewhere. Papers accepted for presentation must be relevant to the workshop, and to demonstrate clear exposition, offering new ideas in suitable depth and detail.

The Discovery-owned American Heroes Channel is bringing the Civil War from 2D to 360 degrees with a virtual reality experience.

The cable network’s short VR segment Civil War: Letter From the Trenches, from Cream 360 and Discovery VR, is a companion piece to Blood and Fury: America’s Civil War, a TV series set to debut Dec. 14 and transport viewers to tumultuous battles like Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Gettsyburg from a soldier’s point of view.

Tenure-track positions in game design/development or HCI, Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science is searching for multiple tenured and tenure-track faculty members to join our vibrant, collaborative, and rapidly growing department. We are especially encouraging applicants with expertise in either game design/development *or* human-computer interaction (HCI).

Gaming-focused applicants working in any technical area of digital game design/development are also encouraged, and this position is one of several gaming-related faculty searches happening this year as part of the new Creative Technologies + Experiences strategic growth area.

LearnXDesign 2017: Beyond the Allure of the Digital – Research in the learning and teaching of designThe DRS/CUMULUS/DESIGN-ED conference
27-30 June 2017
London, at Ravensbourne on the Greenwich Peninsulahttp://lxd2017.london

Deadline: 6th February 2017

This conference will bring together researchers and practitioners with an international reach and from a wide variety of education design settings with the intention of connecting emergent models and ideas around the digital, with the scholarship of teaching and learning. We also look to issues beyond the attraction of the digital in learning: other ways of acting, knowing and becoming in design – in the full range of educational settings from kindergarten to PhD. Student’s’ learning approaches demand creative solutions to a wide range of complex themes and contexts. We welcome debates on the scope of learner literacies and studies that investigate how formal and informal learning can be synergized. Dialogues that address new cultures of learning, issues of learner identities, tutor roles, space and their implications in the design of learning environments are also encouraged. In this context the digital imbues all such practices.

This is a call for papers and we hope you will make a date in your diary to contribute to the conference. Places will be limited and an international committee will review the submitted papers. Opportunities to publish with a range of international journals will be available for successful research articles following the conference.

Themes include but are not excluded to:

Research in design education

Hybrid models: digital/analogue

Wearables and its pedagogy

Remote collaboration including international

Technology impact on design

E-learning and design

Learning through digital

Inter/ transdisciplinarity in learning and teaching

Learning in design practice

Teaching in design practice

Virtual reality (VR/AR)

Considering the local, international, and the global contexts of design education

[This story from Psychology Today highlights some of the promise and especially the controversial perils of technologies that produce increasingly higher levels of presence. –Matthew]

[Image: Debradacija/Shutterstock]

Warped Reality

What will it mean when millions of people play—and kill—in virtual reality?

By Andrew Rosenblum, published on September 5, 2016 – last reviewed on November 25, 2016

It’s 1944. You’re an American G.I. on the Pacific island of Peleliu and a Japanese tank is creeping your way. You aim your bazooka and pull the trigger, sending the tank flying in a cloud of fire and molten steel. Somebody yells, “One down, keep it up!” You run toward the burning wreck and see a Japanese soldier, whose legs have been blown off, writhing in agony. You pull out your machine gun, point it at his face, and fire.

This execution of a wounded soldier is one of hundreds of savage scenes in the video game franchise Call of Duty, which has sold more than 250 million copies since its introduction in 2003. The game’s violence is hardly unusual in this multibillion-dollar industry. Now imagine such scenes rendered in virtual reality, or VR—you could literally crane your neck down to see the Japanese soldier begging for mercy at your feet and, when you fire, watch his blood splatter toward you.

After years of anticipation, a host of “immersive reality” consumer devices are beginning to roll out, and game developers are hard at work creating games for the technology—perhaps its most obvious application. Yet some researchers and even industry figures themselves are nervous about the implications for players’ mental health, arguing that known correlations between violent video games and aggression, coupled with the intensifying nature of immersion in VR, should give us pause. Read more on What will it mean when millions of people play – and kill – in virtual reality?…

Since its inception in 1975 as an adventure game and dubbed as MUD (multi-user dungeon), multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) has emerged as one of the most exciting instructional platforms in education. As both an instructional tool and approach, MUVE holds great potential in engaging and challenging learners in a socially situated and distributed learning environment that simulates real-life tasks and situations.

However, MUVE has long been mixed with other similar technologies, such as computer game, computer simulation, virtual reality, and augmented reality. In addition, like any other emerging learning tools that hold great promises for education, the design, development, and implementation of MUVE are still facing significant challenges before its potential can be fully unleashed and realized. This book therefore will provide the latest technological and pedagogical development, empirical research findings, and best practices in using MUVE in modern classrooms.

OBJECTIVE

This book will aim to (1) explore and identify the unique technological affordances and distinct instructional benefits of MUVE that distinguish itself from other emerging technologies, (2) examine the pedagogical underpinnings and frameworks that guide the design, development, and implementation of MUVE in education, (3) identify current exemplary uses of MUVE in various fields across different educational settings, and (4) identify challenges and future trends in the use of MUVE in education. Read more on Call: Integrating Multi-User Virtual Environments in Modern Classrooms (book chapters)…

[Drones with cameras can provide the user with a sense of spatial presence, but Robot Drone Man can also provide both the user and people who encounter the device with a sense of social presence. This story is from IEEE Spectrum, where it includes an additional image and a 0:55 minute video. –Matthew]

Robot Drone Man is an avatar drone, in the same category as other mobile telepresence robots like Double and Beam. It allows a remote human to have an embodied physical presence through a mobile robot, although in this case, the robot can fly, since most of it is a DJI S1000 octocopter. On top of the octocopter is a Kubi telepresence robot to take care of the actual telepresence bit. With a height of 1.4 meters (landed), it’s designed to match the eye level of people interacting with it, and the remote operator can “gesticulate with two hands and head as if a distant operator exists in person,” says Bae, adding that this is “the first trial to couple a telepresence robot in an upright position and drone platform into one body.” He explains that “it may look impractical to install heavy robot parts on a light drone, but the benefits of telepresence via a flying drone overwhelm the restricted mobility of telepresence robots strolling indoors.” In other words, Robot Drone Man FLY!

Scientific literacy is typically gained through the study of graphs and various types of visualizations. Many of these have been in existence since the late 18th century, and are part of the standard research vocabulary.

The twentieth and twenty-first century have made dynamic, multi-modal displays feasible. Visualization is essential for many applications – it draws on the strength of the eyes for assessing static qualities such as size, color, or texture. But many applications could greatly benefit from displays the address the ears, with their particular sensitivity to dynamic changes and capability for following multiple simultaneous streams.

Auditory information is also received faster than visual information. Hearing sets the stage for what we see. Sound is quickly transmitted to areas of the brain that carry out basic functions at an emotional, survival level. The legacy of our ancestors’ quick “fight or flight” response is the human creature’s unique appreciation of music.

Because of all this, sound should be a part of learning science and other topics. Young students being introduced to information through sound will likely have a more holistic and engaging experience than is possible with visual materials alone. If a generation of students were raised to learn about science by listening as well as looking, what implications would this have for the scientific climate twenty or thirty years in the future?

As this conference takes place 25 years after the first ICAD, it also offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made since that first gathering in Sante Fe in 1992.

ICAD is a highly interdisciplinary academic conference with relevance to researchers, practitioners, musicians, and students interested in the design of sounds to support tasks, improve performance, guide decisions, augment awareness, and enhance experiences. It is unique in its singular focus on auditory displays and the array of perception, technology, and application areas that this encompasses. Like its predecessors, ICAD 2016 will be a single-track conference, open to all, with no membership or affiliation requirements.

ICAD 2017, the 22nd International Conference on Auditory Display, will be held at the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania State University June 21 to 24, 2017. The conference venues are the Colleges of Arts and Architecture and Information Sciences and Technology. The graduate student ThinkTank (doctoral consortium) will be on Tuesday, June 20, before the main conference.

[One of the reasons I think presence is so interesting and important is that it’s extending into nearly all of our activities, in this case an American holiday tradition. This story is from Digital Trends, where the original includes an interactive 1:36 minute behind-the-scenes video. Check out the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade website for more information. –Matthew]

A Thanksgiving tradition is getting a modern upgrade — this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be broadcast live in 360 degrees on YouTube, while a new app offers spectators a virtual reality parade experience carved from the event’s vivid 90-year history.